a rational pre-coital discussion
by Laura x Tennant
Summary: Rose brings up something that she knows the Doctor wants, but isn't sure she's ready for.


"Remember when we first came here," she murmured, stroking her fingers slowly along his shoulder. "We stole that zeppelin and ran away for a bit."

The Doctor smiled lazily as her soft words woke him up, rolling over onto his side to face her. "Mmhmm. Why? Want to do it again?"

"I was just thinking…about all the upping and leaving we do. The - the spontaneity of our life."

His brow furrowed. "What, thinking about it as a - a bad thing?"

"No. No, course not. It's good. It's great that we do that, book a flight and hop aboard and suddenly we're flying to see Mayan ruins or exploring the Ardennes or swimming in the Mediterranean."

"Not as quickly as before, mind you," he pointed out, reminding her of how quickly they could get to places when they had a TARDIS. "Still, at least we don't bother with commercial flights anymore. All that queuing. Nah, much better now we have our own private transport," he smiled, then gave her a wink. "Much, much better."

"Still feel weird about it, though. Dad gives us way too much."

"He can afford to," the Doctor snorted. "And it was our wedding present! Just accept it, Rose; he wants to spoil you. Well, me. I'm definitely his favourite son-in-law."

"You're his only son-in-law."

"Still."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Why do you idolise Dad so much all of a sudden? Is it 'cos he taught you how to play golf? Is that it? Rue the day."

"No!" he squeaked. "I'll have you know that I was just humouring him. I knew how to play golf already. Course I did. What do you take me for? And, I already knew Pete was a decent bloke, too."

She laughed, and burrowed her way into his arms under the duvet. "Well, I s'pose I'm lucky you get on with my family so well."

"Mmhmm."

"Anyway, back to what I was saying - "

"Are you sure about that?" he said, his voice dropping low, "Because instead of continuing our conversation…" He trailed his hands down her ribs, before resting them on her bum with a quick squeeze. "We could always - "

"Doctor, listen to me a sec," she said, as he pushed his hips into hers. She reached down and cupped his morning erection lightly and he groaned and buried his face in her neck. "I promise I'll not let this go to waste, but I need you to listen to me first."

He lifted his head. "Okay. What is it?"

She let out a long breath. "Look. The baby thing."

"Oh."

"Don't you think that it'll mess things up if we start all that? We won't be able to just get up and go like we do now. We won't be able to consult for Torchwood half so much, or get into trouble as often as we do. We won't be able to do this even, not so much," she said, dipping her hand beneath his boxers to touch him properly.

His eyes fluttered shut, and he frowned in concentration as he tried to reply whilst she moved her hand slowly along his length. "Rose. Rose. There's no pressure, or anything. I keep telling you not to worry about it. It's fine."

"But you want one, don't you? I know you do."

He shrugged. "Just think it'll be fun, that's all."

"You see, that's your problem," she said, slipping her hand back out; he squeaked in protestation. "All you see is the fun side of things. The side of things where you've got a little kid to play with and teach."

"Well, yeah."

"And what about the nappy-changing and the late-night feeding and the terrible twos and the way that, however good a job we do at the parenting thing, they'll probably resent us in the end anyway 'cos of how weird and unpredictable our life is."

"Rose, I know all that. I do. And it's all part of it! The adventure of it. Although, I don't think a child of ours could possibly resent us, because we are the best, Rose Tyler, the best at lots of things. That included, I reckon. And they'll be part-us, of course they will love our life."

She couldn't help but smile at that.

"Things can stay as they are," he said. "Or we can maybe change it up a bit, in the future. But only if you want to."

"It's not that I'm dead set against it," she tried to reason. "I mean, I have moments where I _do_ think it's something that I want. I'm just…nervous. Scared, I suppose." She bit her lip. "What if we mess up? What if we're just not very good at it?"

"I think everyone feels like that."

Rose blew out a long breath. "Yeah, I s'pose."

"You don't have to make any decisions right now, Rose. We've got plenty of time; if you change your mind and decide you want to try, then that's…" He shrugged, smiling at her softly. "Then that's what we'll do."

She nodded. "Yeah, okay. And for now we can just…"

"Go on as normal. As normal as things get, for us, anyway. Yeah?"

Rose smiled. "Yeah."

He gave her a peck on the lips, then rolled over, away from her.

"Oi," she remarked. "Thought we were gonna - oh. Right, yeah. That."

He rolled back towards her having visited their bedside table drawer. He waved the foil packet at her. "Tut, tut, Rose. If you don't want any accidents just yet, we've got to be _responsible."_

Rose rolled her eyes and took it from him to open it.

"Honestly, if I wasn't here to remind you, we'd have had a litter by now."

"A _litter?"_

"…forget I said that."


End file.
